


and i might pass out but it's alright

by junietuesday25



Category: Be More Chill - Iconis/Tracz
Genre: Filipino American History Month, Filipino Characters, Filipino Dustin Kropp, Filipino Michael Mell, Filipino Mythology & Folklore, Fluff, Gothic, Halloween, How Do I Tag, M/M, Monsters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2021-01-15 19:22:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,872
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21258371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/junietuesday25/pseuds/junietuesday25
Summary: Michael and Dustin escape from this year's Halloween party to wander around the neighborhood hand-in-hand and have the time of their gay lives. It's the perfect way to spend a Halloween.Until it isn't.





	and i might pass out but it's alright

**Author's Note:**

> hi everyone!! i'm alive!! and in honor of both Halloween and Filipino American History Month, here's a little oneshot that ties them both together and includes two of my favorite characters, Michael and Dustin, who are both played by Filipino actors! happy Halloween and mabuhay Pilipinas! <s>i write that as if i speak literally any tagalog and wasn't raised in america lmao</s>

“Pass the beer!”

“Break the vase!”

“Hit me up!”

“Get a room!”

Michael still hates Halloween parties.

He’s never liked big events anyway, because crowds of people have always been overwhelming and all of the _far_ too loud conversation makes him anxious; it only got worse after that panic attack in a bathroom at Jake’s Halloween party last year. After all this time, though, he’s basically over it. Mostly. Enough, anyway.

But his friends (friends! Plural! To be honest, it still makes him kinda giddy) were nagging him to go, and Jeremy especially has been looking forward to this, along with his boyfriend (_boyfriend!_ BOYFRIEND! Can you believe it?) Dustin, so he decided that he’d brave it for them. After all, how bad could a few hours at a party be?

_Bad,_ apparently. It’s now five hours into the party, and he’s really regretting his decision to show up, because he’s starting to feel that telltale jumpiness and the stares of the people glancing at him on the edge of this couch in the corner and yeah, he highkey wishes he was out trick-or-treating with Jeremy (you are _never_ too old to go trick-or-treating, and anyone who believes otherwise is a complete and utter coward) or cuddling at home with Dustin (and Mochi, his cat who is the most adorablest amazingest thing—after Dustin, of course, but shh). He probably would’ve gone and chugged down a couple of beers to get him through this, but the taste of it and the feeling of tipsiness still reminds him of what happened last year. 

“Hey!”

Michael looks up to see Dustin dropping down on the couch beside him, a lot more careful than he usually would so as not to damage his full, fancy, elaborate cosplay of the Phantom of the Opera. Earlier, Michael was decked out in a matching Christine gown, but he stripped it off about two hours ago to leave just the shirt and the jeans he was wearing underneath, because he thought that would help him calm down a little or something. It sort of worked.

“Hey,” Michael says, forcing his knee to stop bouncing. That only makes his internal twitchiness worse, but he doesn’t want Dustin to—

“Are you okay?” says Dustin, pulling off the mask and hooking the rubber band around his arm. “You don’t look so good.”

...Worry.

“I’m fine,” Michael says, fiddling with the sleeve of his sweater. “Just, you know, parties aren’t really my scene.”

“We can leave,” Dustin offers, standing up.

“No, no, it’s fine,” Michael tries to protest, but Dustin’s already hauling him up by the hand and leading him toward where they left their coats.

“Nah, it’s okay,” Dustin says, pulling on his jacket. “Nothing interesting’s happening anymore, anyway—and it’s way more fun hanging out with you.”

Michael pretends he’s not blushing as he grabs his own coat and puts it on. Dustin picks up Michael’s scarf and wraps it around Michael’s neck. 

“Gay!” some skinny little white kid yells across the room to them. 

Michael and Dustin share a glance. Michael almost wants to laugh.

“Wow, so observant,” Dustin says, and leans in to kiss Michael to drive the point home. Michael can’t help but smile into it, and snickers when he watches the kid gag theatrically and turn away out of the corner of his eye.

They hold hands all the way through the house until they get to the street curb, where they stop for a moment to drop off the extra bits of their costumes off in Michael’s car, but then they immediately go back to holding hands again. They set off, with no clear path but to wander around the neighborhood.

This year’s Halloween is pretty freezing; the wind whips at Michael’s hair and scarf, and he’s shivering slightly despite the heavy coat he’s wearing. In fact, the only warm parts of him are his hand holding Dustin’s and his heart as he looks at Dustin. <s>God, that’s so cheesy, but it’s true.</s> The cold fresh air is nice, though. It clears his head from the party, so now all the nervous jitters are gone, replaced with piles and piles of soft fuzzy love. <s>Again, cheesy—but he can’t help it, it’s truly how he feels.</s>

“This is really nice,” Michael comments, because although he’d literally die if he said exactly what he was thinking earlier, he wants to say _something_ about how great his boyfriend is. “You’re awesome.”

Dustin looks over at him, swinging their hands between them. “Aw. You’re awesome too, dude!”

“Buddy, don’t call me ‘dude’ when we’re dating.”

“I literally just did, man.”

“Bro.”

“Bro.”

They’re laughing, now, and Michael’s hit with the overwhelming urge to kiss him again, so he does. He can feel Dustin grinning against his lips, which makes Michael smile even harder. This has to be the sappiest they’ve ever been together, and he loves it.

They finally continue walking. This neighborhood has a lot of children, so there are oceans of little—and not-so-little—kids in costumes all over the streets and sidewalks. That, along with the glowing, spinning, waving decorations that cover every house and lawn, create the atmosphere of pure unadulterated joy and excitement that makes Halloween one of Michael’s favorite holidays.

“I want candy,” Dustin declares, breaking the comfortable silence. “You think they’ll still give me some if I don’t have the mask and stuff? And if I’m this old?”

“Probably, but even then you know there are those ‘take one’ bowls, right?” says Michael. He looks at the nearest house, and, sure enough, there’s a blue plastic bowl from the Dollar Store sitting on the steps with a flash card propped against it. “See, there’s one right there.”

They go up to it, and there are clear packets of pink, blue, and yellow cotton candy inside. Michael didn’t even know they sold those until now.

“They won’t kill me if I take, like, a million of these, right?” says Dustin, already reaching to grab a couple. “They’ll just think a bunch of kids came by.”

“Sure,” says Michael, laughing. He takes a blue one out of Dustin’s arms, and Dustin makes grabby hands for it.

“No, give that back!” he says, and Michael slowly and deliberately tears it open.

“You’ll survive without it,” says Michael, ripping off pieces of the cotton candy (it’s condensed from being stuffed in the packet) and putting them on his tongue to let them melt. Dustin pouts as he opens one of his own.

About a minute later, they’re walking once again, stuffing pieces of cotton candy in their mouth as they go. Michael doesn’t really notice it as it’s happening, but slowly, the crowds of children disappear until they arrive at an abandoned street, completely pitch-black but for a single flickering streetlamp. But according to Dustin, this cuts right through to where the Halloween party is, and it’s starting to get late so they really should be getting back as soon as possible. But it’s also creepy as fuck, exactly where the characters in horror movies always get violently axe-murdered, and would it really hurt to take the long way around?

“Ooh, spooky,” says Dustin, strolling right in, so Michael swallows down his protests and follows.

The happy aura feels like it’s being sapped out of him as they walk through this...strangely long, winding street. A graveyard is located right next to the sidewalk they’re on, which certainly doesn’t do anything for the atmosphere. The silence is almost eerie. 

Michael valiantly pretends he isn’t drawing closer and closer to Dustin and linking arms with him out of something as stupid as being freaked out by the darkness and quiet and the shadows of the graves, but Dustin notices anyway.

“We’re almost at the end of the road,” Dustin says, picking up the pace a bit. “A minute, tops.”

“Cool,” says Michael, fake-casual but internally breathing a sigh of relief. 

And that’s when they hear the high, piercing screech from deep within the graveyard.

Michael literally jumps. Dustin swears, eyes going wide.

Silence, once again. Michael’s heart is _thumpthumpthump_ing against his ribcage loud enough that he’s sure Dustin can hear it. Dustin pulls a little closer.

“What,” Dustin says, “the _fuck_ was that?”

“Probably some little kid got scared by something?” Michael offers weakly. “Maybe they were chasing each other around in there?”

“Makes sense,” says Dustin, but they cross the street anyway so they’re separated from the graveyard.

Oh thank god. The end of the street is in sight; Michael can hear the giggles of children and the bright purple, orange, and green lights flashing all around. Just gotta—

There’s a cry like one of those dinosaurs in _Jurassic Park_ or something from their right, and by the light of the lone streetlamp, a thin, tall, humanoid creature with bat-like wings soars over their heads and dives toward the graveyard, low enough that Michael can feel the rush of wind blow through his hair as it passes.

“Shit, shit!” Dustin says, and fuck appearances they’re about to break into a run when creatures identical to the flying one but for the lack of wings run across the street in front of them, cutting off the route out of here; Michael turns around, and it’s the same deal behind. More of the creatures with wings fly overhead, and Michael and Dustin duck down and run behind a tree. The smell of the creatures slaps Michael in the face, a horrible mixture of literal shit and...coconut oil? Miraculously, they don’t seem to be going after Michael and Dustin, but Michael does not want to stick around to see when that’ll change.

“Oh god,” Michael says, squeezing Dustin’s hand tight enough that it must be painful. “Um, um—”

Dustin digs around in his pockets with his other hand.

“Fuck, I left my knife in my other jacket,” says Dustin. 

_You carry a knife around?_ Michael wants to ask, but saves it for another time.

“All I have are these stupid calamansi candies my lola made me take when I went to her house this morning,” Dustin continues, holding a palmful of them up. 

Behind them, there’s an almost pained whine, and the creatures recoil from them, starting to form a wide circle around the tree where they stand.

“Maybe rethink calling them stupid,” Michael says. It must be something about the candies! “Keep doing that! We can make a run for it!”

Dustin looks confused, to say the least, but he complies, and they make a mad dash for the end of the street, Dustin holding the candies up high above their heads. Michael was right—the creatures give them a wide berth as Michael and Dustin burst, panting, onto the main street full of happy trick-or-treaters. When Michael looks back, he can’t see the creatures, but he knows they must still be crossing to the graveyard.

“Let’s—let’s go back to the party,” Michael says, which is a sentence he never thought he’d say with such sincere intentions. “Um…”

“Yeah,” says Dustin, and they set off at a sort of powerwalk back to the Halloween party.

All of a sudden, those don’t seem so scary anymore.

**Author's Note:**

> the creatures that attacked Michael and Dustin are called aswangs!! there are many interpretations of them, usually versions of western monsters such as, by far the most common, vampires, so i combined a few different kinds of aswangs into what you see here. the thing with the candies repelling the aswangs is that aswangs don't like calamansi, the way vampires don't like garlic
> 
> check out my [tumblr](junietuesday.tumblr.com)! and comments and kudos are greatly appreciated!


End file.
